Publicaties

In species in which paternal care has an important impact on the offspring's fitness, concealment of reproductive status has been proposed as a strategy employed by females to prevent males from practicing desertion and polygamy, which would then lean to monogamous or polyandrous mating systems or both. We investigated whether the female's reproductive status is being concealed in golden-headed lion tamarins, which exhibit extensive paternal ...

Finding a responsible method of population control that does not compromise animal welfare is a pressing problem for zoological institutions and conservation breeding programmes. This is exemplified by the conservation breeding programme of the golden-headed lion tamarin, Leontopithecus chrysomelas. The number of golden-headed lion tamarins in captivity is currently being limited by, among other means, the we of contraception. We have conducted ...

In order to be suitable, a contraceptive method should have little or no effects on social organization or behaviour. In callitrichids, changes in socio-sexual interactions between group members, due to hormonal changes induced by contraception, may, have consequences for the reproductive inhibition of offspring in their natal group. This may lead to an increased rate of inbreeding. In this paper we report on the endocrinological and behavioural ...

In Callitrichidae, reproduction in subordinate females is generally inhibited but occurs in rare cases, possibly in association with the presence of an unrelated male, important food resources or low dispersal opportunities. This study investigates the occurrence of groups with multiple breeding females in captive golden-headed lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysomelas), the factors leading to their formation and the consequences for the group. ...